Best Places In The World To Retire

As both a visitor and as an investor the straight answer is that yes, Nicaragua is cheap, very much so if you look beyond the larger resorts and development projects. There are areas of the country that have developed faster than others and where prices have risen more quickly but even in established places like Granada and San Juan del Sur it is still possible to find good value. Emerging destinations such as Ometepe, Leon and some of the smaller pacific coast communities offer...

As both a visitor and as an investor the straight answer is that yes, Nicaragua is cheap, very much so if you look beyond the larger resorts and development projects. There are areas of the country that have developed faster than others and where prices have risen more quickly but even in established places like Granada and San Juan del Sur it is still possible to find good value. Emerging destinations such as Ometepe, Leon and some of the smaller pacific coast communities offer excellent investment opportunities.

When I first came to Nicaragua in 2006 to look for land to develop my project I focused my property search on the more established areas along the pacific coast but was eventually tempted to invest in land on Ometepe island precisely because of the cheaper prices coupled with the obvious growth potential.

While prices for many goods and materials may not necessarily be that much cheaper than in the US, labor costs are low and help make it cheaper to build or to run a business. Typically a day-laborer on a construction project will cost less than  US $1 p/hr and you will struggle to pay more than $1.50 for a very decent local beer!

The amount you will spend on food here in Portugal would depend on for how many people you are buying. The cost for a couple with one son would average about $100 to $300 a week.
 
Sometimes I don’t have lunch at home but we’ll have dinner and sometimes I have a big lunch and I don’t eat dinner, for the cost for us really varies. Going to the supermarket, I spend an average of about €60 (US$ 65 or £43) a week. Then I’ll go to the fruit and...

The amount you will spend on food here in Portugal would depend on for how many people you are buying. The cost for a couple with one son would average about $100 to $300 a week.
 
Sometimes I don’t have lunch at home but we’ll have dinner and sometimes I have a big lunch and I don’t eat dinner, for the cost for us really varies. Going to the supermarket, I spend an average of about €60 (US$ 65 or £43) a week. Then I’ll go to the fruit and vegetable market, the butcher, the fish market and spend another €50 (US $54 or £36). The cost of food in Portugal is about a quarter less than in England. 
 
To cite some examples, a whole chicken is about €5 (US $5.42 or £3.60). A sliced loaf of white bread costs €70 cents (US $76 or £50). I buy whole wheat bread that is uncut from the bakery that costs me about €1.50 (US $1.62 or £1.08).
 
The cost of food in the markets in Portugal really varies. I cannot report the exact costs because I am not a supermarket person. I go to the supermarket once a month to buy cleaning product and canned foods. That’s about it. I don’t buy any food from the supermarket. There is a street market close to where I live here in Portugal and every Saturday and Sunday, I go there to buy my vegetables. I buy eggs from free-range chickens from a lady who sells them. I buy all the meat from the butchers and I buy fish from the fish market. The reason why I don’t buy fresh produce from the supermarket is because they don’t taste the same. Most of them come from Spain so they have travelled for days and have been refrigerated. When I put it on the table, it lacks flavor.
 
It’s like in England. In England, the food is appalling because there is no flavor. When I eat potatoes here in Portugal, they do taste like potatoes. When I go to England, the potatoes don’t taste like anything. Same thing with tomatoes. The tomatoes in Portugal taste and smell like tomatoes but in England don’t taste nor smell like tomatoes. The reason why I like buying from the street market instead of the supermarket is because the food that they sell in the street market comes directly from the producers or farms. That is commonly done in Portugal. The way that I buy is not unusual at all in Portugal. A lot of people buy from the street markets here in Portugal because people like the flavor of food. People who appreciate good flavor in foods go to the street markets. Those people who like processed food or pizzas go to the supermarkets.  

The ecotourism in and around Bocas del Toro, Panama is some of the best in all of the country.  Imagine being surrounded by lush tropical rainforests, beautiful white sandy beaches and amazing coral reefs.  Bocas del Toro is the perfect location for ecotourism, and there are several eco-lodges located in the region.

The ecotourism in and around Bocas del Toro, Panama is some of the best in all of the country.  Imagine being surrounded by lush tropical rainforests, beautiful white sandy beaches and amazing coral reefs.  Bocas del Toro is the perfect location for ecotourism, and there are several eco-lodges located in the region.

Yes, you can absolutely lower your US tax liabilities abroad .  Living outside the U.S. creates amazing opportunities to lower your worldwide tax bill--sometimes even to $0.  That's right, depending on your specific situation, you may be able to grow wealth while not paying tax to any government, all completely legally.  

 

On the U.S. side of things, the main strategy here is to own an active business through a non-U.S. corporation and...

Yes, you can absolutely lower your US tax liabilities abroad .  Living outside the U.S. creates amazing opportunities to lower your worldwide tax bill--sometimes even to $0.  That's right, depending on your specific situation, you may be able to grow wealth while not paying tax to any government, all completely legally.  

 

On the U.S. side of things, the main strategy here is to own an active business through a non-U.S. corporation and actually participate in the operation of that business.  That way, your non-US corporation itself is not subject to U.S. tax (assuming that its business is conducted outside the U.S.), and then your non-U.S. corporation can pay you a salary of up to about $100,000, which will be free of U.S. tax as long as you qualify for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (the "FEIE").  You can qualify for the FEIE by staying outside the U.S. for at least 11 months per year.  Or, if you want to spend more time in the U.S., you can become a "bona fide resident" of another country and still qualify for the FEIE even if you spend up to 4 months per year in the U.S.

 

Now, the above is just a high-level overview--there are of course some ins and outs there.  But the bottom line is, if you own and operate the sort of business that you can do from anywhere, living outside the U.S. provides tremendous opportunities to grow tax-free wealth.

 

(Pictured: hotel in Virgin Islands)